Claremont school board decides to sell surplus property

CLAREMONT - School board members decided to sell off two pieces of surplus property Thursday night.

The first property is the Service Center, located at 700 W. Base Line Road, and the second is the La Puerta piece of land, at 2475 N. Forbes Ave., and both were passed unanimously as separate items at a regular school board meeting inside the district offices.

Board member Steven Llanusa, who has raised questions about the Service Center being named a surplus property because of items like it being used for district property and employees, gave a speech before voting in favor of it.

"At the last meeting, there was talk of the necessity of doing this within a certain time frame. To make this decision, it would enable the district to capture $500,000 to $1 million dollars. My preference has been to retain the Service Center until we know it is a surplus If we declare it a surplus, there is no option to return to if the current plans don't work out. While I don't know for sure this is a good decision I hope it is."

Assistant superintendent of business services Lisa Shoemaker said after the meeting the district would go to bid for public auction on the properties in May.

In other news, a resolution initiating proceedings for a Recreation Assessment District and ordering the assessment engineer to prepare a report passed unanimously.

Also, a resolution to urge congress to rescind an across-the-board cuts to education, or sequestration, passed on a 4-1 vote.

Board member Sam Mowbray said: "It seems to me this does not solve the problem of the budget at the federal level. I don't believe this in the end will happen."

wes.woods@inlandnewspapers.com or 909-483-8549 or on Twitter @ClaremontNow